tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9721761.post8071903154282902581..comments2024-03-19T07:27:06.216-04:00Comments on VOTARIES OF HORROR: Guest Blogger: Mike Discusses The Problem With Comic BooksKatherine Woodburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14364517253667798449noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9721761.post-13293119144547601842011-11-22T16:34:01.689-05:002011-11-22T16:34:01.689-05:00There's The Incredibles. I've always thoug...There's <i>The Incredibles</i>. I've always thought Mr. Incredible being sued for whiplash was actually too close to reality to be completely comfortable. <br /><br />But I must be a product of my time; I often start thinking, "What's the lawsuit here?" when watching TV/movies. Like in <i>Ironman</i>, when Stark is checking out the suit and gets a build-up of ice and then plummets back to earth, only getting the suit's power back at the last moment! <br /><br />And he shoots through traffic, and I think, "I wonder if the owners of that town car are going to try to sue Tony Stark when they figure out it was Stark in his suit that ran them off the road that night?" <br /><br />Hey, maybe all those people who claim to be abducted by aliens are really just preparing their potential court cases for when the aliens show up for certain. (Now, <b>there's</b> a Ferengi moment: "Welcome to earth. Peace. Goodwill. Blah Blah Blah. Here's a bunch of Complaints.")Kate Woodburyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06276977170991272672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9721761.post-5029196468099788062011-11-22T15:39:22.405-05:002011-11-22T15:39:22.405-05:00Perhaps someone should do a comic book where the s...Perhaps someone should do a comic book where the superhero comes back only to be hit by a bill for back taxes and a civil lawsuit over the damages he/she caused.<br /><br />On top of that you can have the hero want all his stuff back, only to be blocked in court since it's already gone through probate, and thus ending up penniless.<br /><br />(Am I the only one who, while watching a chase scene in a movie wonders, "who's cleaning all this up?" and usually, "why so few police?")Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04450897654318345683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9721761.post-66709941918661607702011-11-22T00:24:42.365-05:002011-11-22T00:24:42.365-05:00I agree with you Joe! In fact, that's kind of...I agree with you Joe! In fact, that's kind of the point I was trying to make!<br /><br />I also agree with Kate.... Tragic endings are relied on far too heavily. <br /><br />In the last year alone, there have been several character deaths, and none of them have or will stick. Cable, Thor, Bucky-cap (Bucky, who stood in for Captain America while HE was dead), and Thor have all died this year, and both Steve Rogers (The original Cap) and Bruce Wayne have both been resurrected recently! Bucky-Cap was brought back within a month, and plans are already in motion to bring back Cable and Thor. Even X-man/Nate Grey, a character I loved as a teenager, but who was killed off on my mission, was recently brought back! At least his death was a little longer lasting!<br /><br />The Sentry, a pretty cool hero/villain of the last few years was also recently killed, though I haven't heard yet of any plans of his return.<br /><br />If you want a great mini series that actually touches on, and even makes fun of, all the recent comic deaths, check out Blackest Night, a Green Lantern event that dealt with Black Rings that brought dead characters back as animated corpses! Although, it does end with eight resurrections! One cool moment is when every character that has ever been killed/reborn is possessed by the black rings!Mike Cherniskehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10977194295402105318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9721761.post-64789264198258379592011-11-19T09:25:01.458-05:002011-11-19T09:25:01.458-05:00Mike's comment about "revolving door deat...Mike's comment about "revolving door death" made me think of all the books and plays I had to read in high school with tragic endings. Unhappy endings can be used correctly as plot devices; I personally never cared for <i>Romeo & Juliet</i>, but the play is a good one, and I was actually a big fan of <i>MacBeth</i> and books like <i>Lord Jim</i>. <br /><br />But they (unhappy endings) are also lazy, an easy way to engage (teenage) readers and convince them that a work is profound: look, someone falls off a tree limb! look, someone crashes his sled! look, someone gives up everything for the sake of money, finds it has backfired, and commits suicide! look, someone is forced to die due to lies told by others! look, some kid's head gets smashed by a rock! look, someone gives up his life for his best friend!<br /><br />Okay, I rather like the last one. <br /><br />But it's an <b>unending</b> list of bad endings, and all I can assume is educators discovered that teenagers are easily impressed by this stuff. <br /><br />Which is fine, I suppose, since teenagers are supposedly grappling with the meaning of life, identity crises, etc.<br /><br />It gets annoying though when "grown-up" literature and television still serves up the same stuff, <b>not</b> because it works in terms of continuity or character development (as Mike has pointed out) but because it is an easy sale. This annoys me whether it is a comic book or a New York Times so-called bestseller. <br /><br />Tragic endings are not automatically more profound or more realistic or more insightful than non-tragic-endings. And they can be just, if not more, cliche. <br /><br />But they're easier to write and sell.Kate Woodburyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06276977170991272672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9721761.post-9837176771488818422011-11-18T14:32:10.072-05:002011-11-18T14:32:10.072-05:00Take one step back and you've highlighted the ...Take one step back and you've highlighted the problem with all superheroes, in comic books or otherwise (and the problem with the show Heroes); namely that if there are no persistent consequences, who cares?<br /><br />If Captain America can't die then there is no risk, there is no conflict save for brooding, which is faux conflict (something far too many writers fail to grasp) and gets old fast.<br /><br />(The irony of Whedon is that he clearly knows this, but can't resist, just like he knows that ensemble shows tend to endlessly add characters, but he ultimately can't resist that either. No doubt he would have done it with Firefly had it lasted.)Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04450897654318345683noreply@blogger.com